Installing Your Vinyl Flooring as the DIY Project

As the Easter holidays end, the kids return to school and that sun now starts to provide a welcome return of warmth. It stands to reason that you are having those little urges to make some changes. If you’ve recently been browsing for a new flooring but want to make big savings, you may be wondering “can I install vinyl flooring myself?”.

The Spring clean is one thing, but we are feeling the full change in visual comfort for the home. Obviously, the big urge is to swap that drab carpet for something fresh, and luxury wood effect vinyl flooring no doubt has topped the shake-up list – a good choice also.

Now if you still feel a tad wary of letting anyone into the home after a year, that is understandable. You may want to undertake the challenge yourself and thankfully it is not as hard as you may believe.

Plan Out

Naturally, you are going to have to undertake a teeny bit of research into your requirement of vinyl flooring. There are many brands to choose from such as Luvanto luxury vinyl flooring all the way to Invictus. Sometimes the hardest part is simply choosing from the number of options you have to hand.

A great perk of vinyl flooring is that the underlayment is built into the product, which eliminates an entire step when it comes to laying a new floor, giving you some advantage on time, money and labour.

Subfloor

Whenever you pull up your old floor there is going to be some consideration needed in preparing the subfloor before laying anything new. It needs to be level and smooth on the surface.

This means anything like nails or staples stuck in wooden boards need to be removed and the floor needs to be cleaned of dirt and debris. There is nothing worse than these things coming back to haunt you after you have laid a vinyl floor over them, so don’t cut corners on your levelling.

If you have the occasional squeaky floorboard then take the moment to fix them prior to installation. A drywall screw drilled next to the nail in that area to make it steady and annoyance free.

Installation Start

Before you begin it is best to fully decide on your laying design, talking with an expert and measuring up the pieces. This ensures no nasty surprises such as a low amount of tile or board needed or having too many.

In almost all scenarios you will start from a corner and proceed from that point, connecting each with the tongue and groove on each side. For the first row, provide a tongue facing the wall and use spacers between the first planks and the wall. This will be covered by moulding later.

This is usually the trickiest section as the boards will then easily snap together using the tongue and grooves, being sure to stagger so the boards don’t line up. You will need to cut some planks in order to fit, but the leftover pieces can begin the next row to ensure a consistent unstaggered look. As planks are laid, use a tapping block and small hammer to make sure it is seamless with the neighbouring plank.

You can also get aid with the use of a floor cutter tool, which ensures any cuts are perfectly straight to line up with the next plank.

Amazingly, that is as straightforward as it gets and if you have any doubts, there are always professionals on hand to give advice at Floorbay.

You now know the answer to “can I install vinyl flooring myself?”. If you want even less hassle, you should choose the number one choice in vinyl flooring, which is the cheapest Amtico flooring in the UK.